At 11.30 pm on Monday, a 28-year-old Bandra resident was molested near her home. But as her attackers found out, they messed with the wrong woman. As the two men tried to assault her, she unleashed a string of punches, forcing them to run away.
However, when she went to Khar police station and narrated the incident to the officers on duty, they refused to see it as a molestation case and sent her away after filing a mere non-cognisable complaint.
On Monday, the communications executive was walking from Carter Road to her home in Sherly Rajan Road when a rickshaw approached her from behind. As she tried to get out of the way, one of the two men seated on the back seat groped her.
Agitated, she began walking hurriedly towards her house. But before she could get to her house, which was about a few metres away, the autorickshaw returned.
This time, the 28-year-old fought back. “The road was deserted and they had stopped the rickshaw right next to me and one of them tried to molest me. I was terrified and could not think of anything so I asked him what he was up to and punched him on his face,” the woman said.
But the attackers were not amused by her pluck. One of them started punching her.”I punched him back. He tried to punch me again but I got out of the way and it hit my shoulder. I was screaming and I think the auto driver got a little scared and the trio left in the rickshaw,” she said.
She said that it all happened so fast that she couldn’t take down the rickshaw’s number. “But I had had a good look at the guy who punched me. I narrated the entire incident to my parents and applied ice on my eye, which was swollen,” she said.
“On Wednesday, I approached Khar police station to file a complaint. I realised that I had fought back but not every girl would be able to do that. The sick guys might target someone else and I wanted to put an end to it,” she said.
However, the officer on duty, API Sachin Jadhvar, merely registered an NC. She was told that she should have called the same day and taken down the vehicle number. But since she has failed to do either, there was nothing they could do. Normally, in such cases, the cops take help from a sketch artist.
On Thursday, Mumbai Mirror decided to take up her cause and contacted P Dighaonkar, deputy commissioner. On hearing the entire incident, he agreed that it merited an FIR. “If the allegations are true, it is a serious case and we should file an FIR and investigate the case,” he said.
The girl was then called to Khar police station and an FIR was registered by senior inspector Mangesh Pote. “Such an incident has never happened in the area and we will investigate the case and take adequate measures to avoid a repeat of such a case,” he said.